Wireless Internet will span 40 miles per town

SARA MINOGUE

The Nunavut Broadband Development Corporation says it does not expect Nunavut’s smallest communities to come up with $50,000 to get the same service as decentralized communities when wireless broadband Internet begins to roll out across the territory in July.

Mayors and SAOs were not pleased when Reuben Murphy, an NBDC board member, told the Nunavut Association of Municipalities that smaller communities would get wireless services only within a one-mile radius, while six decentralized communities would get service within a 20-mile radius.

Murphy suggested that smaller communities who saw the benefits could fund-raise for the extra $50,000 the broader range would cost.

Imelda Angootealuk, the SAO for Whale Cove, wondered aloud how her community of just 300 people could raise $50,000. “We only have 10 months left,” she said to the forum in Inuktitut.

“I don’t like it,” said Kimmirut SAO Cecil Marshall, immediately after the presentation on Monday, saying there was no way the communities could come up with the money.

Marshall repeated his opposition to the plan at the Nunavut Economic Forum held in Iqaluit on Tuesday, May 4.

The NBDC has almost all of the funding it needs to start making wireless Internet available in July, if only some of the communities get service within the 20-mile radius.

The NBDC’s project manager, Lorraine Thomas, says that Murphy, who is also the director of development and innovation for the department of Economic Development and Transportation, was not authorized to suggest that small communities would pay the difference.

The NBDC recognizes that these communities do not have the money, Thomas says, and that it will be the responsibility of the NBDC to come up with the funds.

Thomas is surprised at the new demand for high-range service.

“The original mandate was to connect the buildings in these communities,” she says. “The smaller communities are actually quite small. This will be sufficient.”

The problem, Marshall says, is that some communities extend beyond one mile. Resolute Bay, for example, occupies some four to five miles of coastline. Kimmirut spans at least four miles.

At the time of the proposals, nobody in Canada was using the 2.5 gigahertz technology that will offer a 20-mile radius of wireless Internet. Now that the technology is within reach, many communities want to see it connecting people who live outside of the hamlets, those out on the land, and at outposts.

Thomas says the NBDC is now committed to finding money for the communities. They plan to ask SSI Micro, the company that will build the system, to offer a deal so that all communities can have high-range access.

The range of service was only one concern that NAM members expressed at their annual general meeting in Pangnirtung last weekend.

Donna Adams, a Rankin Inlet hamlet councillor, asked for clarification about maintenance and training once the system is in place, and expressed concern about the lack of IT professionals in the communities.

The NBDC plans to train individuals in each community to operate an ISP and take care of technical difficulties.

Zacharias Kunuk, filmmaker and deputy mayor of Igloolik, spoke up to defend the system, saying that he too was skeptical at first, but can see the potential benefits the system could provide.

“Right now we’re just supporting the telephone companies,” he said in Inuktitut. “The government’s system is much faster. We’ll be able to really communicate through this service.”

Marshall agreed that the system could bring benefits, especially to those selling crafts or artworks online from small communities. “Right now, you can’t even download a picture.”

The NBDC is just $777,000 short of full-funding for the project, not including the extra cost of putting 2.5 gigahertz systems into each community.

Industry Canada committed $3.885 million to the project last October. Atuqtuarvik Corporation will be providing $3 million in debt financing, and Kakivak Association is guaranteeing a short-term loan from the Royal Bank of
Canada for $227,000 to start the project rolling to meet the sealift schedule. A formal announcement on the financing is expected to be released later this week.

NBDC plans to look at Nunavut business development funds for the final amount. Once in place, the service will be subsidized by the National Satellite Initiative, which will contribute $900,000 annually.